This book addresses an important aspect of how language is used in written communication: the ways that writers reflect on their texts to refer to themselves, their readers or the text itself. This is known as METADISCOURSE. Metadiscourse is a key...
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Kommunikations-, Informations- und Medienzentrum der Universität Hohenheim
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This book addresses an important aspect of how language is used in written communication: the ways that writers reflect on their texts to refer to themselves, their readers or the text itself. This is known as METADISCOURSE. Metadiscourse is a key resource in language, as it allows the writer to engage with readers in familiar and expected ways. Writers use the devices of metadiscourse to adjust the level of personality in their texts, to offer a representation of themselves and their arguments. This helps the reader organise, interpret and evaluate the information presented in the text. Metadiscourse is therefore crucial to successful communication. Knowing how to identify metadiscourse as a reader is a key skill to be learnt by students of discourse analysis. Learning how to use metadiscourse in writing is an important tool for students of academic writing in both the L1 and L2 context. This book has four main purposes: - to provide an accessible introduction to metadiscourse, discussing its role and importance in written communication and reviewing current thinking on the topic. - to explore examples of metadiscourse in a range of texts from business, academic, journalistic, and student writing - to offer a new theory of metadiscourse - to show the relevance of this theory to students, academics and language teachers. Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Section 1: What is metadiscourse? -- Chapter 1 First impressions -- 1.1 A brief overview of metadiscourse -- 1.2 A context of emergence: information and interaction -- 1.3 Metadiscourse and audience awareness -- 1.4 Metadiscourse, interaction and audience -- 1.5 Summary and conclusion -- Chapter 2 Definitions, issues and classifications -- 2.1 Definitions of metadiscourse -- 2.2 Propositional and metadiscourse meanings -- 2.3 'Levels of meaning' -- 2.4 Functional analyses -- 2.5 'Textual' and 'interpersonal' functions -- 2.6 Metadiscourse signals -- 2.7 Categorizations of metadiscourse -- 2.8 Summary and conclusions -- Chapter 3 A metadiscourse model -- 3.1 Key principles of metadiscourse -- 3.2 A classification of metadiscourse -- 3.3 Metadiscourse resources -- 3.4 An illustration: metadiscourse in postgraduate writing -- 3.5 The limits of description -- 3.6 Summary and conclusions -- Section 2: Metadiscourse in practice -- Chapter 4 Metadiscourse and rhetoric -- 4.1 The concept of rhetoric -- 4.2 Academic discourse and rhetoric -- 4.3 Metadiscourse, ethos and The Origin of Species -- 4.4 Business discourse and metadiscourse -- 4.5 Metadiscourse and rhetoric in company annual reports -- 4.6 Summary and conclusions -- Chapter 5 Metadiscourse and genre -- 5.1 The concept of genre -- 5.2 Metadiscourse and genre -- 5.3 Metadiscourse in academic research articles -- 5.4 Metadiscourse in popular science articles -- 5.5 Metadiscourse in introductory textbooks -- 5.6 Summary and conclusions -- Chapter 6 Metadiscourse and culture -- 6.1 Culture and language -- 6.2 Metadiscourse across languages -- 6.3 Metadiscourse and writing in English -- 6.4 Interactive metadiscourse in English -- 6.5 Interactional metadiscourse in English -- 6.6 Summary and conclusions -- Chapter 7 Metadiscourse and community.
